Famous Apologetic Racist Elwin Wilson Dead At Age 76

He’d said his daddy always told him that a fool never changes his mind. And Elwin Wilson didn’t want to be a fool.

Wilson, a former 3 K’s member who apologized for his racist past and specifically for beating a black man who went on to become a U.S. congressman, has died. He was 76.

Wilson came to national attention when he publicly apologized to Georgia Rep. John Lewis. He and his friends attacked Lewis at a bus station in South Carolina some 50 years ago.

“My daddy always told me that a fool never changes his mind, and a smart man changes his mind. And that’s what I’ve done, and I’m not ashamed of it,” Wilson told CNN’s Don Lemon in 2009.

“I feel like I’m apologizing to the world right now.”

Lewis, who appeared on the same show, said he forgave Wilson.

“It is very much in keeping with the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence, to have the ability, the capacity, to say I’m sorry, forgive me, and the person that received the attack will say you’re forgiven. Because hate is too heavy a burden to bear,” Lewis told Lemon.

He said that Wilson was the first and only person who had attacked him and apologized for it.
“Maybe Mr. Wilson will inspire others to come forth,” Lewis said.

Could you ever bring yourself to forgive someone who had been flagrantly racist for a majority of his/her life? Especially someone who had attacked you?